Preparing for an Ice Storm

It's 6:10 am here, and we have had ice falling all night long.

I hate ice.  It's dangerous.

Yesterday, I dropped daughter off at school and then ran a couple of errands.  I ran to the grocery store and picked up some extra non-perishable canned foods and a few more bottles of water in case if we ran out of power.

I filled the car with gas.

When I returned home, we had a half cord of wood sitting in the driveway.  We spent last night moving the wood up under the carport.  If our power goes out, at least we'll have a way of keeping the house warm!  Even better, the wood is up under the carport, so it is dry.

All of our electronics have been charged and are still charging.  Cell phones, laptops, Kindles, Nooks, everything has been and is being charged.

For dinner last night, I made two huge pots of chili.  If the power goes out, we will have some cooked chili that we can heat up on the woodstove for dinner.

I have the rechargeable, hand cranked lantern ready to go.  Once the sun comes up, we'll have some kind of light.  I'd rather not pull the candles or the lantern out until tonight, if the power is out.

Even as I write this, our power keeps blanking in and out.  I have heard the explosions as transformers in the area are exploding.  I am curious how long we are going to keep power, and if it does go out, how long we stay out.

Oh- one last thing I did last night... I filled a whole bunch of water bottles with water and stuck them in the big freezer.  All of the empty spaces are filled with water bottles.  So, if our power goes out and I keep from opening the freezer, the food in there should remain good for quite some time.

The ice chest in the kitchen is on standby, too, ready to accept the stuff from our fridge, if need be.

I forgot to mention - our gas cans are filled, and we have the generator on stand by, under the carport, chained up to the bolts we installed just for the generator.

I just heard a major tree fall in our front yard.  I believe it may have taken out my Civic.

I am going to sign off now.  If  you are on the East Coast in this ice storm, stay safe.